Black Friday

I'm still in Colorado with my brother's family. My brother was watching the news this morning and it showed where people were camped out in front of stores in little pop-tents waiting for stores to open up. Some stores opened at 4am, others opened up later. But damn I ain't sitting out in a tent in the snow just to wait for a store sale. There ain't nothing I need to shop for that bad.
And 2 guys shot each other in CA, in a "Toys-R-Us".

I did go into the mall here with my niece & nephew after 2pm. My nephew had to get something to go with his "killer Bunny" game and I needed some warm fuzzy socks at Wal-Mart. My neice also complained cuz I wasted $35 on some decoration thingy for my room and 3 magazines at Borders.. My niece got a new game to play on her computer called "Zoo Tycoon", its actually a neat game where she builds her own zoo. My brother and his wife had to go check out "Circut City" cuz they were having a 40% off sale cuz they are going out of business soon.
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ok I'll post pictures from Thanksgiving later...but yes dinner was GOOD!

Birds

These first few pics were taken at the Shrine of Ages about 3 weeks ago. I just got around to downloading them onto my computer tonight.

These little ones were getting nervous from everyone standing near them and talking. They kept trying to move away but as you can see they were tied down.

not so sure I would want to hold this bird on my arm.

This raven was at the rim last year, when I took the photography class that Canon offered. Actually tried sending this picture into a contest and now all I get is dumb junk-mail from the site that supposedly had the photo contest.

California condor~july 2007

If you click onto the picture, you can see the numbers on its wings. It would be sorta neat to see if I can get a picture of the same bird next year.

Ravens near Mather Point~July 2008

A lady that lived at Brandt Hall put this bird feeder out and fed the birds everyday.

$75 VS $195

To fly out of the little airport outside of this national park, employees can get a local discount for a stand-by seat.....but if the plane is full (it probably holds less the a dozen people) you are outta luck and don't get to fly, but if there is room on the plane then the seat cost $75.

If u want to guarantee a seat and pay full price, then u pay $195....and I wanted to guarantee a seat on the plane...so yup I dished out the $$...an extra $120 just to make sure I got to vegas with plenty of time to make my connecting flight onto Denver. Coming back home I will be on stand-by so at least the trip back from Vegas will be cheaper.

Sure is highway robbery...or should I say "skyway" robbery seeing as I won't be on the road.

So anyways...I'll be leaving the canyon area on Tuesday the 25th at 10am. I'm flying from Tusayan-Vegas, then Vegas-Denver and hope like hell that I don't get stranded in a Denver snowstorm to prevent me from coming back home on time.

Hermits Road

I missed the ribbon-cutting cermony because I was at work at that time. But after work I took the shuttle bus down to Hermits Rest. I decided to walk back to Pima Point from Hermits. There is a new improved walking/bike trail along the road...well sometimes the trail will go closer to the rim, then the road does. Of course you can still find the oooold trail that has been here many,many years. So while talking to a couple from Canada, I decided I liked the oooold trail better because it got even closer to the rim. silly adventourous couple decided to follow but then the guy started getting nervous when he realized I had never been on that trail and had no idea where it would end up. So the picture right below this is from where we all 3 climbed up to get off the oooold trail

Part of the new walking/bike trail

Some of the improvements that were done to the road...boy oh boy did it ever need improving.

ok, I'm not sure exactly when but the Orphan mine will be taken down soon.

I don't think I have ever seen the old mine as good as I did today. But it's very visible from the new "Powell Memorial" bus stop. I was more impressed with the mine then I was with someone silly idea of a memorial to Powell.

Here is the Powell Memorial. Now does this hunk of cement/stone/whatever give you a sense of what Powell did or was? Sorry but someone wasted alot of time & money on this. I overheard 1 guest wonder if it was for Colin Powell...like WTF! I wanted to smack him across the head for being so dumb. But then again...how is anyone supposed to know what/who this memorial is for. I mean, not every guest goes to see the movie at IMAX.

I don't really remember what was written on the memorial, but still nothing all that great...nothing about Powell's fearless adventour or his wonder for life.

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Even though I was on the Hermits Road for 2 & 1/2 hours yesterday, I didn't get to see everything I wanted. And seeing as the buses won't be going down this road again until March I guess I will have to walk down on a day off.

I hate packing

ok, I called housing on Saturday so they could move my 2 shelf units along with a few boxes of books & stuff. I had a headache & stomache was feeling BLAH but I was curious to see what the room actually looked like.
OMG~the bed was sooo high that you can actually fit the little table underneath it and I made a joke to the housing guy about needing a ladder to get up into it. It will be good for extra storage underneath...I even order greenish fabric to tack up to the bed frame to hide the storage stuff (my comforter is mostly a green design~so the fabric will sorta go with it, I hope) , And the room is slightly smaller then the room I have now but of course the room I am in now is supposed to be for 2 people and the new room is ALL MINE!
Seeing as I wasn't feeling the greatest I figured I would wait to move anymore....even though housing office wanted me all moved by Monday (yesterday). Between working and not feeling the greatest, I knew there was no way in hell that I was gonna clock outta work at 2pm and be all done moving before 5pm.
Damn, I wish I could be like the TV show "Bewitched" and just wiggle my nose and have all this stuff instantly moved over.
I think I count 17 boxes, 1 suitcase, 8 bags left to move and then of course my computer, frig, freezer & microwave and laundry cleaners & blankets....damn I have too much stuff.

This morning Stevenson came to see if I had already moved...HaHa, not even close. And Qwest won't switch my phone & internet service over till Friday.

moving

wow, what a week!

First my cafeteria temporarily closes for Winter and me & all my co-workers get scattered around the park to work elsewhere. I ended up being a line server at Maswik here for the first week and a half (luckily I get put back in the kitchen starting next Thursday), and yesterday I finally get a key to my new room in the "Brown building". I ain't ever even been inside the other dorm before but I'm still psyched about moving.
Boy do I hate packing!!! Ya would think that as many times as I have hopped onto a greyhound bus to move around the country that I would be used to it by now...and have some little packing tricks to make this easier.
...and the best thing is, that I will no longer have to get any new roomies. Yup I got single status. And I won't have to worry about running into "Mr Clingy" in the hallway or have him knocking at my door. I'll be a little closer to the kennels & the rec center & the cafeteria I work at during the Winter, but unfortunately I won't be within walking distance to the store or to Brenda anymore, but hey, ya can't have everything.
So as long as I stay at the Grand Canyon, I am all set with my own space & I have talked to couple other people that live there and they say the rooms are bigger then what I have now....and who knows, I may even get so used to this winter-time gig, that maybe I will stay there also instead of going back to Yavapai cafe. Not exactly sure yet which area of the kitchen they will put me in next week, but either pantry or steamer will be fine with me.

Halloween night

Here I am with Darnell in front of HR. I called my costume Skeleton Bride but someone in the housing office said I could call it a reserected Harvey girl & this is what u look like if u have been at the canyon since 1898.


Here's a close-up of Vanessa our shuttle bus driver. She was freaking out guests all day dressed like this.

Have no idea who these girls are but thought it was a strange place to hide a glowstick.

My neighbor Kristy is wearing the playboy bunny ears & Taco from fire & secruity was also taking pics of everyone.

Met this freaky guy creeping around Maswik.

Here we are, me & Jeff & Brenda starting the evening at Maswik. I have a Marguarita held up & Brenda got a new drink....Witch's Brew, which was actually a Tokyo Ice Tea (I think)

Not sure if Brenda was trying to flirt or just distract Jeff from the game...didn't matter because Jeff won anyways.

Brenda was getting my money out so I could play tunes on the jukebox...I love the look on her face.

Pumpkin display at Maswik.

My co-worker, Jason came into Maswik after work. Even though his face is covered in make-up, I knew Brenda we must of made him turn red a couple times tonight.

Here I am with Jason.

Ok, I haven't dressed up for halloween for about 15-20 years, and I had a blast doing it this year. I loved all the guests reactions to my costume. I even found out the Australia is trying to make Halloween a holiday but have no luck with it so far...so 1 dad took my picture with his kids.

Even some of my co-workers didn't recognize me at first.

Even though I ended up getting sick by the end of the night (Brenda says I'm a graceful drunk...LOL) It was still a fun night.

Queen of Halloween

This is the pumpkin, that Brenda carved out...it's whats greeting everyone at her door.


Just 1 shot of the treat bags that Brenda was making up for a bunch of people and she went all out this year with them. They were fabulous!!! In fact I am munching on my chocolate-covered pretzel sticks as I am typing this at 3:30am. You probably can't tell, but the stuff is sitting on her bed which has an orangy halloween blanket & pillowcases too.

Here is Brenda making up a goodie bag. She has had halloween music playing on her computer for weeks now which is why her computer is left on behind her.

These looked terrific. She got the idea from a Martha Stewart magazine. Someone at her workplace asked if she could make 20 of these for a kids party next year.

This was the display that she had set up at work. The little brownie coffins were already gone by the time I took this picture.

She may be dressed as a witch, but I will continue to call her "The Queen of Halloween"

We were getting ready to go out to Maswik for the evening & just our luck the bus driver was also dressed up.